Apple opens Siri to third party developers | Hacker News Reader

Apple opens Siri to third party developers

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192 pointstilt33 comments

This has nothing to do with 'open' :

Add SiriKit support only if your app implements one of the following types of services:

    Audio or video calling

    Messaging

    Payments

    Searching photos

    Workouts

    Ride booking

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/content/docum...

Indeed, the core use case for an open Siri would be to avoid Apple Maps, e.g. by telling her to "use Google Maps to navigate me to X."

They seem to be explicitly forbidding this :(

Also lacking is support for queries that would open up other media apps. "Siri, can you play my podcast in Overcast?"

Spotify as well.

The fact that anyone can do anything with Siri is a HUGE opening from what's deployed now, where Siri can open your app by name and that's it.

Now there are defined integration points that are open to all developers.

It's not 100%, but that's not Apple's way. Even if they go there they do it a step at a time.

This is still a huge improvement for users.

yes, that's the method everyone has been waiting for:

    - (void)resolveDropOffLocationForRequestRide:(INRequestRideIntent *)requestRideIntent

> The fact that anyone can do anything with Siri is a HUGE opening from what's deployed now

For definitions of 'anything' that are specifically Audio or video calling, Messaging, Payments, Searching photos, Workouts, Ride booking

That was 'anything' as opposed to 'nothing', not 'anything' as in 'everything'.

Rereading it I see how it can be read the other way.

(Speculation) I'd guess this is so they don't have to solve the hard problem of allowing arbitrary prompts and distinguishing between them (and QC thereof).

This way Apple only need to add a few new prompts like "send a message with $appname to $person", and ensure they work consistently.

This is probably 100% about blocking Spotify, and other media companies, directly competing with Apple.

But if they were more specific, it would probably smell like anti-compete lawsuit.

Wow, controlling Spotify by Siri is exactly what got me riled up when I saw this headline.

Why would you be upset about that?

Oh my, that's a language glitch due to sleep deprivation. I meant excited.

At least they now let you build a better Siri alternative: https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/content/sampl... iOS 10.0 not Max

That's a bit of a disappointment. I imagine they'll gradually loosen restrictions.

Based on what?

No navigation nor todos :/

"Now in iOS 10 we have an intense API" did they mean "intents" by any chance?

Nope! Siri now screams at you when you miss an argument to an endpoint. It's pretty intense.

Yes, it's intents: https://developer.apple.com/sirikit/

Are these intents only open to Siri?

If so, and if security is the cause: on Android, apps have the option of looking up the app triggering an intent of theirs to check its APK signature in order to verify the origin (allows for secure inter-app communication).

How do TechCrunch articles get on the HN homepage so often? They're all horribly written and full of errors.

Techcrunch writes articles to bring visibility to yc startups and hn pays back sending eyeballs to techcrunch.

Part of me wonders if that line was dictated to Siri instead of typed.

Is it open to all app developers or just the selected apps they mentioned? Wasn't clear in the demo.

I would assume it is all. But limited to the few example categories of queries the demonstrated.

Interestingly, they did not demonstrate a media query (i.e. Play Metallica on Spotify). If they don't open up for that, it is a pretty significant limitation of the API.

It could be intentional, there's already siri commands for Apple Music.

They are likely to support these, Cortana supported media queries on its release two years ago.

I had web dev on the mind and was really confused about why Siri needed CSS support

It wasn't clear to me either. In the developer extensions slide, I see a reference to "SiriKit" which might mean it's totally open?

It's sort of open.

https://developer.apple.com/sirikit/

Basically, it looks like you can extend Siri in a few different ways, just like extensions last year. I expect that it will open up as time goes on.

The API reference documentation is linked to at the bottom of the page.

So the system Siri is only accessible for a few very specific app use cases. What a dissapointment

This seems like an obvious and necessary move given the ramped up competition from other platforms & increase in voice interaction with devices.

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